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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Should You Trust Your Feelings?

Let us say you see a big monster in the deep, dark forest with nothing around for as far as you can see, which is not that far considering the forest is deep and dark. I say dark because it is and deep because I hear it a lot on the movies and the word sounds cool when associated with a forest. So what are you doing in such a forest, and is it not a little silly to be in such a place? Why yes it is, but I needed an example for this post to answer whether you should truth your feelings or not, so please entertain the thought of you being ignorant enough to be in this forest. So what should you do when you see such a monster?

First of all, what does your Guidebook on Monsters say about this situation? Even if you did have such a book, you probably would not have time to look up the answer. Furthermore, if you are anything like me, even if you read the answer in the book, you probably would not remember it. With all that typed, you basically have no knowledge of what to do, so what other authority should you turn to? Maybe you should consider what else you have with you.

Well, did you bring your feelings with you? If so, what do you feel? Do you feel fear? Maybe the fear is telling you to get away from the monster as fast as you can. Okay, you better run! Now that you are running, you think to yourself, maybe my feelings were telling me to hide instead. Oh well. It is too late now.

So when you think are away after running awhile, you find yourself in a dark, cold, muggy place—entirely different type of atmosphere than before. What is this place? It is very weird, and I am not sure it is a good weird. Your feelings tell you that it could be a pond because there is water here. Then you hear a gurgling, and the water feels a little acidic.

The monster you were running away from likes to play with his food, and he likes to see his food run, which is why he let you run. This particular monster has very good senses, and he sensed you right away, so of course, hiding would not have worked. Unfortunately, he is an even better runner, so yes, you guessed it (if you did not, then, no, you did not guess it), you are in the monster’s stomach!

Do you get out alive? What will happen if you do not get out of the monster? For this blog post, I am not here to write stories, but I am here to write an example to help answer the question "Should you trust your feelings?" So what does that mean for the end of this story? Well, the answer to the question of what happens next may be forever left unwritten.

You might say that who knows this story might have ended well because the monster was actually a good monster and ate you because there was a bigger monster about to eat you, and he was bad. Since the good monster ate you, the bad monster was like, "Oh well. I tried." Then he left. The good monster spit you out, and you became lifetime, close friends.

However, since I am the story designer, without giving the ending away, I do type that the monster was bad and wanted the acid in his stomach to digest you. Sorry.

You might also say that maybe there is no right answer, and you would get eaten anyway whether you trusted your feelings or not. While that may be true in certain situations, I want to point out that you jumped to a decision before evaluating every choice—and it would have only taken several seconds longer. You could have hidden—of course, that was wrong too. If you would have taken the time to look at the monster and use your critical thinking, you would have seen him already notice you and that he is so built for speed, so you could have ruled out the options from your feelings. And if you quickly glanced around, you would have noticed a small cave behind you (the moon had conveniently come out and was shining on it). If you had gone into that cave and waited out the monster, you would have survived because the cave opening was smaller than the build of the monster.

Now you might say, you only setup this scenario to prove that trusting your feelings are wrong, but it does not prove a thing! Well, first, I want to answer the question "Should you trust your feelings?" Second, I never typed what I wanted to prove. I would just like to show that feelings are unreliable. While this scenario may seem unlikely, you never know what could happen, and you have to admit, it could take place (possibly substituting the monster for a real creature). With that typed, I believe this example does help show that feelings are unreliable.

However, if that is not enough, let us consider what the truth of God's Word states. The wisest person that ever lived, King Solomon, wrote, "A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back" (Proverbs 29:11). In other words, a wise man thinks and examines before "venting," which I believe can also apply to our situation to a certain degree. So you should have thought and examined the situation before relying on your entirely on your flood of feelings. So now you say, you set me up for failure by putting me in this example! But I type, well, you decided to read it. Okay, maybe you never said any of those things that I typed of you saying, Oh well. Hopefully the point still comes across.

With all that typed, if you had relied on your critical thinking in the first place, you probably would not have been in the deep, dark forest. We all make mistakes though. (This thought was generously donated by an unnamed person after I forcibly and nicely read the blog post to them.)

For now, maybe you can write a suggested ending to the story in the comments with the parameters I have given. Who knows, I may even include your ending in this blog post, and that is an amazing thing because of all the popularity I do not get. However, some of my family members may read, so you can always hope! Thanks for reading,

About Me

My
name is Jeremy Ham, and I am weird, which is good. Think about it: if
everyone was normal, it would be a bad place to live in!

I like spiders, but hate crickets. I like burned steak better than cold chop just like Curly Howard. I hate money. My favorite actor is Gonzo. Most of all, I love God and strive to put him first in all that I do. Also, my hometown is "under a tree"!